Category Archives: Congress

Antonin Scalia, R.I.P.

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Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Saturday, practiced a constitutional conservatism that is out-of-step with today's Right. [Credit: lifenews.com]

Supreme Court Jus­tice Antonin Scalia, who died on Sat­ur­day, prac­ticed a con­sti­tu­tion­al con­ser­vatism that is out-of-step with today’s Right. [Cred­it: lifenews.com]

The arc of con­ser­vatism’s decline was traced in the course of a few hours last Sat­ur­day. That after­noon we learned of the pass­ing of a gen­uine con­sti­tu­tion­al con­ser­v­a­tive, Antonin Scalia. Hours lat­er, we endured anoth­er GOP debate dur­ing which pro­fessed con­ser­v­a­tives trad­ed barbs and insults, now con­sid­ered a suit­able sub­sti­tute for char­ac­ter and sub­stance by a large swath of Repub­li­can vot­ers. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Iran Nuclear Agreement: Disagreeing Over How To Disagree

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Secretary of State John Kerry shook hands with Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Sharif on a nuclear agreement earlier this month. But the two don't agree on what they agreed to. [Credit:vocfm.com]

Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry shook hands with Iran For­eign Min­is­ter Moham­mad Javad Sharif on a nuclear agree­ment ear­li­er this month. But the two don’t agree on what they agreed to. [Credit:vocfm.com]

The par­ties to the Iran nuclear agree­ment don’t agree on what they agreed to.  Con­gress is strug­gling to agree on how to express its dis­agree­ment with the agreement.

Such is the debased state into which U.S. for­eign pol­i­cy and con­sti­tu­tion­al gov­er­nance have descend­ed. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The GOP’s Gift To Henry Waxman — Part I

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Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and John Boehner (R-OH) took a bow when the House passed a $141 billion health care bill. But Henry Waxman deserves the credit. [Credit: Politico]

Nan­cy Pelosi (D‑CA) and House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH) took a bow when the House passed a $141 bil­lion health care bill. But Hen­ry Wax­man deserves the cred­it. [Cred­it: Politico]

“What a way to cel­e­brate a birth­day!”  – House Minor­i­ty Leader Nan­cy Pelosi (D‑CA) after the House passed bipar­ti­san health care legislation

Sor­ry, Nan­cy.  It’s not about you.

The $141 bil­lion health care bill that cleared the House last month and that is expect­ed to win Sen­ate approval next week is a trib­ute from the GOP-con­trolled Con­gress to for­mer Con­gress­man Hen­ry Wax­man, a man who worked tire­less­ly – and with great suc­cess – to expand health care-relat­ed wel­fare spend­ing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

A Sensible Immigration Ruling Makes No Sense In Washington

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The President took immigration policy into his own hands, bypassing Congress. A federal judge has ruled that he acted improperly. [Credit: Tax Justice Blog]

A fed­er­al judge has ruled that the Pres­i­dent improp­er­ly took immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy into his own hands. [Cred­it: Tax Jus­tice Blog]

A fed­er­al judge in Brownsville, Texas, on Mon­day pro­vid­ed a way out of the Con­gres­sion­al impasse over a bill to fund the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS).  But the oppor­tu­ni­ty might be squan­dered by Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans bent on self-immolation.

Com­pared with the President’s exec­u­tive excess­es and Repub­li­can cir­cu­lar fir­ing squads, Fed­er­al Dis­trict Court Judge Andrew S. Hanen’s pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion against the Admin­is­tra­tion’s immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy is a mod­el of ratio­nal­i­ty and restraint. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How Cutting Jobless Benefits Cut Joblessness

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During his December 2013 Hawaiian vacation, President Obama phoned lawmakers, asking them to extend unemployment benefits. They did not. Which is a good thing, according to a new study published by NBER. [Credit: Fox News]

Dur­ing his Decem­ber 2013 Hawai­ian vaca­tion, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma phoned law­mak­ers, ask­ing them to extend unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits. They did not. Which is a good thing, accord­ing to a new study pub­lished by NBER. [Cred­it: Fox News]

A lit­tle more than a year ago, the Pres­i­dent was dis­tressed.  It was a few days after Christ­mas 2013, and extend­ed unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits for 1.3 mil­lion peo­ple were about to expire.  In a typ­i­cal­ly per­func­to­ry lob­by­ing effort, he called two Sen­a­tors to urge them to move a bill to pre­serve the benefits.

To recov­er from his exer­tions, he and his fam­i­ly then “ven­tured to the white-sand beach at Bel­lows Air Force Sta­tion, which is on the wind­ward side of the island of Oahu and fea­tures turquoise water and a stun­ning view of the Moku­lua Islands,” the Wash­ing­ton Post reported.

That tran­quil scene augured the best year for U.S. employ­ment growth since 1999.   Accord­ing to the Labor Depart­ment, the econ­o­my added more than 3.1 mil­lion jobs in 2014.  The topline unem­ploy­ment rate was 5.6% in Decem­ber, down from 6.7% the pri­or Decem­ber and the low­est rate since June 2008.

And here is the sur­pris­ing major rea­son for the resur­gence in employ­ment: Con­gress spurned the President’s entreaties and let extend­ed unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits expire. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The President, His Critics And the Politics of Impatience

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What do these two men have in common? More than you might think. [Credit: Politico]

What do these two men have in com­mon? More than you might think. [Cred­it: Politico]

“But what I’m not going to do is just wait.  I think it’s fair to say that I’ve shown a lot of patience…But what we can’t do is just keep on wait­ing.”  Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, Novem­ber 5, 2014

The Con­sti­tu­tion offers no rem­e­dy for pres­i­den­tial impa­tience. Pres­i­dents, Mem­bers of Con­gress and judges are some­times con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly required to “just keep on wait­ing.”  And that is some­thing office­hold­ers of both polit­i­cal par­ties seem increas­ing­ly unwill­ing to do.  When it comes to cir­cum­vent­ing the rules to achieve the polit­i­cal objec­tives of the moment, the Pres­i­dent and some of his most stri­dent con­ser­v­a­tive foes are soulmates.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Lawsuit Boehner Should Bring

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The House has authorized the Speaker to sue the Administration for overreaching in its Obamacare implementation. He should sue over its corporate welfare provisions. [Credit: rightspeak.net]

The House has autho­rized the Speak­er to sue the Admin­is­tra­tion for over­reach­ing in its Oba­macare imple­men­ta­tion. He should sue over its cor­po­rate wel­fare pro­vi­sions. [Cred­it: rightspeak.net]

Hi Chet –
After speak­ing at length today with Jeanne and our oth­er pol­i­cy folks, I do not think I have any more to add. They seem to have giv­en you 80 per­cent of what you request­ed and I am not in a posi­tion to sec­ond guess there [sic] analy­sis.
Sin­cere­ly,
Valerie

“Valerie” would be Valerie Jar­rett, one of Pres­i­dent Obama’s clos­est advis­ers. “Chet” would be Chet Bur­rell, CEO of Care­First Blue Cross. In the April 15 email, Jar­rett advised the insur­ance exec­u­tive that he would have to live with 80 per­cent of what his indus­try asked the White House for.

A month lat­er, the Admin­is­tra­tion relent­ed and gave the indus­try 100 per­cent of what it asked for – a reg­u­la­tion that will involve the give­away of an addi­tion­al $1 bil­lion in tax­pay­er funds to insur­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Oba­macare exchanges.

If the Speak­er intends to file a law­suit against the Admin­is­tra­tion for abuse of pow­er, as a res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed last evening by the House autho­rizes him to do, he should sue over this. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

When Dead Men Rule

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G.K. Chesterton worried that our predecessors would have too little influence on our politics. But Gene Steuerle says that they have too much. [Credit: christiancompletely blog]

G.K. Chester­ton wor­ried that our ances­tors would have too lit­tle influ­ence on our soci­ety. But a new book by the Urban Insti­tute’s Gene Steuer­le says that they exert too much con­trol over our pol­i­tics. [Cred­it: chris­tian­com­plete­ly blog]

“Tra­di­tion means giv­ing votes to the most obscure of all class­es, our ances­tors.  It is the democ­ra­cy of the dead.” – G.K. Chester­ton

Chester­ton fret­ted that mod­ern democ­ra­cies might show too lit­tle def­er­ence to past gen­er­a­tions.  But accord­ing to the Urban Institute’s Gene Steuer­le, the very oppo­site is true: in Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy, dead men rule. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

War on Women: Dispatches From The Front

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The latest skirmish in the "war on women" took place this past week in the Senate. [Credit: ACLU]

The Sen­ate was the scene last week of the lat­est skir­mish in the war on women, one of sev­er­al con­trived con­tro­ver­sies man­u­fac­tured by the polit­i­cal class. [Cred­it: ACLU]

Resolv­ing con­flicts is a core func­tion of gov­ern­ment.  Incit­ing them is a core com­pe­ten­cy of our polit­i­cal class.

The habit of inflam­ing pas­sions for polit­i­cal pur­pos­es was on dis­play again this week in the US Sen­ate. Wednes­day’s show vote osten­si­bly con­cerned the right of women to receive “free” birth con­trol from their employ­ers.  But the leg­is­la­tion, as its authors sure­ly knew, would not become law.  If it did, it would result, not in employ­ers buy­ing more con­tra­cep­tives for their employ­ees, but in more work­ers los­ing employ­ment-based health insurance.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Elizabeth Warren’s Anti-Progressivism

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Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) preaches progressivism but is her student loan proposal anti-progressive? [Credit: NPR]

Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D‑MA) preach­es pro­gres­sivism but is her stu­dent loan pro­pos­al anti-pro­gres­sive? [Cred­it: NPR]

“This coun­try should not be run for the biggest cor­po­ra­tions and largest finan­cial insti­tu­tions.” Sen­a­tor Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D‑MA)

To judge from Warren’s record so far, she would be pre­fer that the coun­try be run for the ben­e­fit of its biggest uni­ver­si­ties. Con­tin­ue read­ing →